Wednesday, 24 September 2008

I know it's been a couple of days (sorry to anybody who checks in daily...), but I finally feel like posting something somewhat positive for once!

Today started off normal (well normal for the last couple years) enough. I woke up a few minutes late, so no shower. I made my own coffee, which is alright, because it's already paid for, and it saves me a couple minutes and some gas on my commute to work. Although, the gas station I usually stop at gives you either a free doughnut (made daily), or a copy of the Daily Herald (local Chi Town paper, for those of us who don't want to lug around the Tribune) for free with the purchase of any cup o' joe. I prefer the glazed chocolate doughnut, it tastes better than the news paper, although it doesn't offer the fiber that the paper does... Then, after arriving at work, I discovered that one of our supply companies had a problem with the communication lines between their warehouses, so we only got about a quarter of our order, which meant that every single one of our customers was missing part of their order with us, and one customer didn't get their order at all! Stupid phone lines! I am surprised that the supplier in question uses DSL, and not a cable line for their internet. Then, while sitting up front, separating invoices for my drivers, line 1 rang, and Matt and Joe were busy. So I answered, it was HSBC. Now yesterday I discovered that Care One Credit had sent the proposal, and that HSBC had accepted the payment. Now I found out that HSBC denied the proposal, and they want av$237 minimum payment! They denied the payment proposal, but took the money anyway?! That's bad business, if you ask me!

Now for the turn around. I was sitting at my desk, again, playing Free Cell, again, when my cell phone rang. I figured it would be HSBC, or some other bill collector. I swiveled around in my chair to grab my phone in the manner I use to prep myself to deal with bill collectors. I glanced at the caller ID, and it read Brent's Cell... My heart skipped a beat, expecting the worse, and then I answered. It was Brent!!! For those of you who know my relationship with Brent, and all of it's trials and tribulations, you will appreciate this. He started out by saying hello, as per usual. Then he asked how I was doing, I didn't give him an entirely forthcoming response. That's when he informed me that he was currently checking himself into a hospital, on his own admission. He was tired of feeling the way he does, and figured he could find a hospital that might actually be able to help him. Then he told me that he just wanted to let me know that he was doing this on his own, for himself. I almost broke down crying right then, but I held it back. We talked a bit more, and he let me know that even when he ignored me, and wouldn't respond when I would give him bits of advice to deal with himself, he really was listening, and finally decided that it was time to listen, and take my advice. Once again, I held the tears back. I could hear the hospital admission intercom in the background, so I knew he was already there, and wasn't calling to tell be that he was going, but that he was already there, and he just wanted to let me know that he was finally taking care of himself, before anybody could intervene. Then I heard his name called for his initial meeting with his new doctor, and he told me goodbye. I told him that I look forward to hear from him again when he is doing better. I closed my phone, and then I cried. I was so happy to get that call from Brent, I just couldn't hold it in anymore. Hell, I'm tearing up now just writing about it!

Then i went to my second job, and made $23 in tips. That was nice, but Brent's call trumps everything!

Yay, the Cub's just won again!!! Go CUBS, and Go Brent!!!!!

To all I love, I love you. To everybody else, well, try to lead a good life. To my family, I'll make it up there one of these days, hopefully at lest once before Thanksgiving! Good night, and good dreams to everyone!

Friday, 19 September 2008

Hello there, how the hell are y'all doing? It's now 3 days from my last post, my apologies, I now have two jobs, and I don't feel like blogging when I get home. But tonight is different. It's Friday, the usual suspect in bustling pizza joints. The night for an almost suspected good take to any pizza driver driving. Then came this fateful night. Things were going well, there were three drivers there. Then after the last visit from a supervisor, who was bringing in new furniture for the "conference room"...

Side Note: It seems I am currently employed by a company that holds a thing called national rally gatherings (or something like that, sounds horrible to me)

...All the drivers had taken a run already, and it was only 5 pm. Then it all stopped. Just ended. The phones stopped ringing. Not good, at all, in the least, almost horrible in fact. I mean seriously, it's Friday! Then, while I'm in the office, eating dinner around 8 o'clock, I heard some guy come in and say "I've been trying to call you guys for about an hour now, and I figured I'd just stop in. Can I order here?" I stopped chewing, and just listened. He placed his order, but I couldn't hear what my manager, Monica, was saying to said guy. This went on for a bit, I finished eating my sandwich. A few moments later I heard my Monica approaching the office, from the front. I stopped her as she was passing the office door, and asked about the current situation. She confirmed what I had heard, and went to check on the phone line switchboard. It would seem that when the supervisor had been in the "conference room", he knocked a cubicle panel into the call catcher, and turned it off. Um, insert frustration here...

We all missed the dinner rush on a Friday night. As soon as the phone was turned on, I immediately looked at the office's computer hub monitor to see a call show up on line 1, and then line 2, and so on. Unfortunately nobody up front knew that because the call catcher sends all callers to a 45 second "welcome, here's our specials tonight" recording. Then the phone rings. May I say here, how much it sucks to be a driver, depending on the tips of a busy Friday night, when the phones are dead?

On the plus side, I did get to see another early autumn moon, in its full (well, more waning actually) glory tonight. It's nice to be able to see the moon again, call me crazy if you want to.

Did anybody else think it was odd that the Cardinals blew out the Cubs like that? I for one, think that it was peculiar. On the other hand, the Brewers got trounced too. What that means, is that if the Cubs can pull off a win tomorrow, they can still clinch the division. Go Cubs!!!

I'm now going to watch some CSI episodes before going to bed. Oh yeah, I can sleep in tomorrow!!! So I figure this is a good time to stop tonight's rant. To all I love, I love you, and to all the rest, I''ll see some of you tomorrow. Oh yeah, go Volkswagen!!!

Tuesday, 16 September 2008

I officially have two jobs now! Boo, but , YAY MONEY! Even though I despise money so vehemently, it's still good to know that I can once again start to buy more than bread and pb&j at the store! Tonight was rather slow though. I had a whopping 2, count 'em 2 deliveries, but hey, I took home $11, and free food for my troubles. No real complaints here! My current manager, Monica, is officially part of the "Dorks United, ltd." group. She's cool, although I think Domino's may have slightly warped her mind, as she's worked for them for the last 14 years, and she's a little younger than me. She's managed most of the stores in northern IL, but hopefully she'll be at this location for a while, and she won't be leaving when the location is fully up and running (as today was only the second day after re-opening, hence it being so sllloooowwwww)I suppose time will tell. It's still a bit of a skeleton crew right now, I'm the only driver, and the cook had his first day today, and then there's Monica, and another woman, who's name I have totally forgotten already ( have I mentioned how bad I am remembering names before?) I work again tomorrow, and maybe I'll have more than a mere two deliveries to take, fingers crossed, as my lower back is killing me from standing around in the kitchen for the better of 5 hours, boo!

Sunday, 14 September 2008

For some odd reason, surf the channel.com lost all of the episodes of Dr Who, as though they were never really there. Very odd, very odd indeed. So I have removed the link, as to avoid anybodies future annoyance. Sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused any of you...

Friday, 12 September 2008

If you use this link, you can find things such as Doctor Who. Otherwise, you can find a whole lotta shows that don't always have syndication on regular tv, or even cable stations. I recommend you check it out if there are any shows you are looking for, that aren't on tv all the time (good luck, and happy viewings!)

Hey, it's me. Hello and hi! After over a year of searching for a show I lost, I finally found it! I found all (or at lest almost all) of the episodes of Doctor Who online! For free!!! I will post a link on this blogs home page, for all of you Doctor Who fans (who people, whodicts, T.A.R.Dfans, etc.)

In other news, no news yet... Having just the kind of luck that my life has thrown me. Found an ad in a local paper for a different Dominos location, and when I went there, it was closed for construction, go figure.

To all I love, I love you too! For all those I don't love, yet like, safe journeys through this world to you all! To those all I dislike, well, so be it, these things happen. :-D Good night y'all!

Tuesday, 9 September 2008

So much for driving for Dominos. I finally got to talk with the manager today. He told me that he wasn't really looking to hire anybody until the weather takes a turn for the worse (as that's when business picks up for pizza places, if you didn't know). Go figure, because I need that job while the weather is still kinda nice, so that I can properly winterize my car before, well...the weather takes a turn for the worse. I had a feeling that I had been misinformed by whoever had answered the phone the day I called all the pizza joints in town.

Dell is now really threatening me. It amazes me how these companies have no regard for financial hardships. No remorse, no understanding, no care for anything except getting absurd amounts of money. Especially a company like Dell. I mean really, is a nonpayment of $114.11 really going to cause them to go under?! I really highly doubt that, as they pull in upwards of $30,000,000 a year on ink for their crappy printers alone. Let alone the fact that I have paid, in full, two computers, accessories, peripherals and a few other things over the years. A couple times I've paid my entire balance in one fell swoop. And they're doing this to me now for a measly $114? I tell ya, not cool.

At work we finally picked up the whole rest of the locations nationwide for a company called Utilities, Inc.. They are a waterworks company, plumbing for houses, corporation buildings, fountains, and all that stuff. The local office (which is just the local headquarters for planning and financing) has been a customer of ours for a whole lot longer than I've been working for Tricomm, just now okayed us to supply all their other locations. 90 more locations in total. Good for us, bad for me. If I am actually expected to handle all the shipping, receiving, and order placement/fulfilment...I'm going to need another raise! Oy!!! I'm getting a cluster headache just thinking about it. Last week I got a call on the work phone. It was some guy telling me that he went over my "qualifications" as a warehouse manager, and was wanting to know if I would be interested in becoming the warehouse manager for a new branch opening in NW Chicago. Although I don't have any forklift experience, I'm sure I could pick it up pretty darn quick, so I told him he could go ahead and email me all the info. When I got home that day, the email was in my inbox. As I've been thinking about finding a new, more lucrative full time job, I figured why not? I went to open it, but my computer shot me down, saying that the email AND the attachment BOTH contained a virus! Not just spyware or bad cookies, but an actual virus. I'm starting to think that one of these days I'm going to wake up and find that not only has my life been full of misfortune, but that somebod(ies) have simply erased all record of me, and I won't be able to do anything with any company again. Maybe that's more wishful thinking than anything :) At least then I could live out my childhood dreams from the book My Side of the Mountain!

In the meantime, I will continue to toil along, and hope for the best. I need a girlfriend in the worst way right now!

To all I love, I love you. To all I know, may luck and good fortune be with you. To all I know, yet strongly dislike, go screw yourself :) Peace out y'all!

Sunday, 7 September 2008

Wow, I knew it had been a while since I posted anything, but last Tuesday, wow, sorry!

It is now Sunday, and I've been doing my best to make it an official Lazy Sunday. It's gone mostly well. I slept in a little bit, and have mostly just been lazing around my apartment (other than going to the store, and spending a little time on the back step of the building, reading). I really shouldn't have gone to the store, as i will already be overdrawn when my rent check clears, but hey, in the last 4-5 months I've dropped down to 150 lb., which means that my body is digesting muscle to stay awake, alert and alive, just like when I had mono when I was 14 (except at least then I had mono, and was mostly asleep). So I went grocery shopping, sue me.

Being Sunday, I am always a little taken aback when creditors call. But the do, those evil soulless bastards! My phone rang 8 times today, and not once was it a friend or a family member, but a collection agent, yay. I really need to get that job at Dominos!!! have I ever told y'all how much I hate money, and how money hates me? Wait, I think I have...

I've been feeling an itch to let my artistic side out lately. But I can never manage to make it divulge itself when I want to, boo. But just a short while ago, today, I came up with a saying, while replaying something my neighbor said to me on Friday. I had asked her if the appointment setting position was still available at her physical therapy office, and she said it was, but I wouldn't be any good at it, because I needed better "people skills"!!! I protested. Then she said that she didn't think I could handle it when people came in and they didn't have a good day, and her example was this..."Well people come in all the time, and when I ask how their day was, they just kinda grunt and say that it wasn't good because they were in pain all day, and now they had to be here. And then I try to make them smile by telling them how nice their shoes are..." Their shoes?! Wow, I've heard of misdirection before, but damn, that's more like materialism, not misdirection, don't ya think? Anyway, this popped into my head today, outta nowhere: Everybody has bad days, but just like them you too can have a good day. (cheesy, yes it is:)

I think I'll end this here. Tomorrow I'll be talking to a credit counseling agency, although i kinda expect they'll just tell me to get a second job. But hey, I need to do something, and I need to do it now. Every journey starts with one step, or something like that :-)

To all I love, I love you. To all I know, may peace be with you. To all those I know yet strongly dislike, well then you suck, but hopefully you'll have an epiphany sooner than later! Peace out y'all!

Tuesday, 2 September 2008

I went to my bank after work today, instead of during. I got a whole $66 of my money back! Anyway, after I got home, I called about 11 pizza parlors, the local ones, and Domino's is hiring drivers, but they are out of apps at the moment, but if I come back next week, they'll have more! The only other place, I left a message at, but haven't heard back from. Nobody else is hiring drivers, go figure. Then I went online to reply to all the survey emails I got today. One of them lead me to Geico Ins., and I can save a whole boatload with them now. Odd, because when i checked a couple months ago they were still way higher than Progressive! So I may be switching over soon. After that, I went to the gas station to get smokes...

Oh how I miss Dahlia (still!!!)! I went in, and there was girl there with an almost identical profile to her waiting in line, but set back a bit from the other people in line. When she regained her focus on the line, she went to get behind me, but I told her that she was there first, so she could go in front of me. She smiled shyly and thanked me. Even her face was almost identical (not quite doppelganger identical, but damn close) She was wearing a RUSH concert t-shirt from this year's tour, and had some Chinese tattoo on the back of her neck. Her hair was dark, with slight dirty blond steaks running through it. It was wavy, just like Dahlia's, and the same length as it was the last time I held Dahlia in my arms (what, almost seven years ago now?). We ended up at registers next to each other, and I looked over at her, but saw no hint of a pierce hole in her left nostril (which Dahlia would still have, even if she stopped wearing her amazingly well fitting nose stud). She kept side glancing at me, but never said anything. We left at the same time, and I held the door for her on the way out, and she thanked me, but said nothing else.

As you all might be guessing, I am now missing the most amazing woman I've ever had the pleasure of dating, knowing, sharing, traveling, talking, fighting, sitting, crying....you know, living with, even more than ever. Son of a mother smucking hitch in a handbag full of snakes and memories!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (Sorry for the Stephen King style of writing in that last sentence, but I didn't want to swear up a storm, in case blogger took offense to that)

Monday, 1 September 2008

I did something very very bad today...I bought some food. I know, I know, I really shouldn't have done that. Because now, unless i hit some kind of financial windfall, I'm going to be overdrawn when I turn in my rent check, and it goes through. Then my lovely bank will start charging me all kinds of lovely fees and penalties. Super fantastic, I know! But hey, at least I get a weeks worth of lunches, so screw the bank, for now anyway... I'm going to make rounds to all the local pizza places tomorrow, and see if anybody is hiring drivers. I'm thinking of putting a couple things up on ebay, but I'm hoping I can find a second job before I have to do that. My buddy Mike told me about some program his bank has, I didn't ask where he banks (SMACK! that's me smacking me upside my own head again). He called it a line of credit. I thought he meant a loan, but he explained that he's set up to be allowed to go below $0 up to $500. I think that might not be the wisest thing, but I'm going to use my lunch break tomorrow, and go ask a banker if that is an option. The way i figure it, I would be able to pay off a couple late bills. Granted I'd be short that money when i get paid again, but at least the bills would be paid already. I'll find out tomorrow if that's an option I can exploit for now.

Lisa, I think I'm glad you're more comforted by your upstairs neighbors noise. My new neighbor discovered an electric guitar, and keeps trying to play Smoke On the Water, and cannot seem to get better. In fact, it gets progressively WORSE! ARRRGGG! Music is my only sanity right now, and now that is being threatened as well, nooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!! What to do...what to do...?

Well, I'm going to finish watching the rest of the season premier of Prison Break (a guilty pleasure to be sure, but not as bad as Lost), and then try to get some sleep before work tomorrow. I hope you all have a good night! I love you all!!!